Table 1.
The top 15 research questions/topics
| Final rank | Topic category | Research question/topic | Total points received |
| 1 | Chemotherapy | Identify molecular signatures to select patients who could be spared chemotherapy | 643 |
| 2 | Chemotherapy | Identify molecular features that indicate the optimal chemotherapy regimen (for example, combination or sequential, anthracyclin or not, and taxane or not) | 450 |
| 3 | DCIS | Determine the factors in DCIS and/or atypical ductal hyperplasia which lead to progression into invasive carcinoma | 406 |
| 4 | Stem cells | Determine the role of stem cells in breast cancer development, progression, and treatment sensitivity | 404 |
| 5 | Triple-negative/basal | Identify response/resistance mechanisms and thereby therapeutic targets for triple-negative breast cancer | 369 |
| 6 | Computing | Develop a system (computer and so on) that will integrate all the information gathered so far about breast cancer to build robust models for understanding the aetiopathogenesis, treatment, and prognosis of breast cancer | 305 |
| 7 | Prognosis | Identify which low-risk patients require no adjuvant therapy | 301 |
| 8 | New growth factor targets | Determine whether other growth factor pathways (such as epidermal growth factor receptor, insulin-like growth factor receptor, Notch, Hedeghog, Wnt, and other angiogenic pathways) are important targets for therapy | 287 |
| 9 | Genetics | Investigate which gene mutations in a tumour lead to metastases | 236 |
| 10 | Endocrine | Identify drugable targets that can be developed/exploited for therapeutic gain to overcome primary/secondary endocrine resistance | 226 |
| 11 | Consensus | Define consensus phenotyping procedures for specific molecular subtypes of breast cancer (immunohistochemistry, expression array, or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction signature genes) | 201 |
| 12 | Endocrine | Search for a more accurate and validated score of hormone sensitivity | 180 |
| 13 (tie) | Imaging | Develop non-invasive techniques to diagnose and characterise primary breast tumours | 171 |
| 13 (tie) | Endocrine | Determine whether there is a molecular profile (including PgR and HER2) that can distinguish patients likely to respond to tamoxifen versus an aromatase inhibitor | 171 |
| 15 | Herceptin: duration | Identify markers of the optimal duration of trastuzumab therapy | 165 |
DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ.